Damir Ismagilov began his career as a lighting supervisor at the Gorky MKhAT in 1977, having graduated from the Moscow Arts and Industry School. He took over as head of the lighting supervision department at the Small Stage of the Chekhov MKhAT in 1980.
In 1987 he graduated from the production faculty of the Studio School of the MKhAT and headed the Artistic Stage Lighting Department of the Chekhov MKhAT. Currently Damir Ismagilov is principal lighting designer with the Helikon Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Chekhov MKhAT and the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre as well as a teacher at the Studio School of the MKhAT and assistant chairman of the Russian Association of Lighting Designers.

Ismagilov was the lighting designer for two new productions by the Helikon Opera in 2004 (Poulenc?s Dialogues des Carmelites and Verdi?s Nabucco) and for the premiere of Prokofiev?s opera Fallen from the Sky in 2005. These productions drew immense interest from audiences and critics alike. The brilliant lighting design for Nabucco, staged in France together with Le Duo Dijon and the Ope ra de Massy, drew particular attention from the press, both in Russia and abroad.
Over his 28-year career, Damir Ismagilov has worked on over two hundred productions. He is a member of the Union of Russian Artists and of the Union of Russian Theatre Workers.